"The team breathes when he has the ball," said Sampaoli of the Frenchman, who has put talk of weight gain and a bad attitude behind him

Nasri scored the winner at Dinamo Zagreb to continue his good form (Photo: REUTERS)

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“When the pre-season starts I am going to be fresh... and when you have been out for so long you are more hungry when you come back,” Samir Nasri said in April.

The sad thing was that Nasri was too hungry for new boss Pep Guardiola, who erased the Frenchman from his Manchester City sky blueprint for turning up overweight.

After a lost season, facing another year on the sidelines, Nasri knew he had to leave and impress somewhere else.

“You don’t want to waste your time," he said. "You want to be back with a bang.”

Seville was the destination, and a first excursion to Spain for the playmaker. Jorge Sampaoli has since lit Nasri's fuse and the "bang" he spoke about has been spectacular.

Samir Nasri appears to be happy again in Seville (Photo: Getty)

The Frenchman signed on loan, with City paying half of his wages (Photo: Getty)

Nasri signed on the dotted line in August and hasn't looked back (Photo: Sevilla FC)

In many ways there should be no surprise at that. Nasri is, after all, one of the most talented French midfielders of a generation but the question marks over his attitude and application were only further underlined by Guardiola's immediate distaste for the 29-year-old.

Nasri told French radio last week that he eventually won over Pep, but still decided to leave in the pursuit of first-team football. And after a discussion with Sampaoli, Andalucia was the only destination for him.

“I managed to change his mind, which was not easy. Guardiola wanted me to stay.

"I made the choice to come here because I had a discussion with the coach. I knew that here I was going to get a break.

“I have a relationship built on trust with the coach [Jorge Sampaoli] and that is invaluable.

“This club has been good for so many players – it has rekindled their careers and got them going again. Now I feel that happening to me.”

Nasri - along with Yaya Toure and Wilfried Bony - was frozen out by Pep (Photo: Imaginechina/REX/Shutterstock)

The Frenchman occasionally couldn't even get in the matchday 18 with City (Photo: Reuters / Andrew Yates)

An outstanding display in the win at Leganés last weekend drew huge praise from his new boss on a day when he looked like a different player to the one that skulked out of Manchester. There was the finesse of his Marseille days but a composure and intelligence that only comes with ten years of top-flight experience.

"The team breathes when he has the ball,” Sampaoli said of his surprise star. “He has so much quality that he is able to relieve us when we’re being pressured by our opponent.”

Nasri popped up all over the field, picking up the ball from his defenders or bursting into the Leganés box to finish from a couple of yards. It was an all-action display, a composed display. In short, it was one that we had forgotten Nasri was capable of.

The Frenchman was one of nine attacking midfielders or forwards brought in by the Argentine coach this summer and it looked unlikely he'd be able to even cement the regular football he so craved.

The Frenchman ran the game, popping up all over the field (Photo: Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno)

But operating in a variety of different roles, seemingly dependent on who the opposition are, Nasri has thrived playing under one of the most aggressive coaches in world football, also scoring the decisive goal in Tuesday's night's Champions League trip to Dinamo Zagreb.

Netting against a relative minnow isn't the be-all and end-all but it was a fitting reward for his recent impressive form.

Nasri has three goals in his last five starts for Sevilla and was Man of the Match in one of the games where he didn't find the scoresheet. It's not just good play, it's starting to look startlingly like consistency too.

Nasri's next challenge is to keep that up for an entire season but, for now, there's an air of genuine change around the man who makes Sevilla breathe.